SNIPER

Designed in 1933...the Ithaca Model 37 is a pump action shotgun geared to the Military, Police, and Civilian market alike.

It has served with distinction with the Military in no less than three major conflicts: WWII...The Korean Police Action...and Viet Nam.

The unique distinction of having both the loading and ejecting port on the bottom of the receiver makes for convenience for both the right and left hand user.
It also makes for a good Military and Police weapon due to the smooth sides that don't allow dirt into the action and don't snag on clothes...making it quick into the fight.

It's based on a 1915 patent designed by John Moses Browning, which was originally marketed as the Remington Model 17...then redesigned and marketed as the Remington Model 31 side eject. That in turn was eventually to become the Remington Model 870 we know today.

Right after WWI....Ithaca was looking to manufacture a pump action shotgun to compete with that days Winchester Model 12...which was still under patent.
Then they seen the Remington Model 17 Patents were going to expire first...and made a move. But, while gearing up to manufacture what would have been called the Ithaca Model 33...they found that a Pederson patent on the Rem M17 would not expire until 1937...SO

They waited...changed the Model name to M37 before releasing it into the market...and the rest IS history.

The Ithaca 37 has the longest production run for a pump-action shotgun in history, surpassing that of the Winchester Model 12 that had originally inspired Ithaca to produce pump-action shotguns.

{ Yea...I moderate a Ithaca Forum...go figure }

Buy it Brother...You cannot go wrong.

( Almost forgot...the best part. Hold the trigger back as you work the slide and you can "slam fire" and empty that bad boy in seconds. )

Well-Known Member

Jim...just buy it. Proceed directly to the seller, open wallet, remove cash, tell the seller to take your damn money, and go home. They're that good. IMO the best pump ever made. When I can find a 28" barrel specimen with a mod or IC choke it's coming home with me. That particular model can do neat tricks. If you invert the gun and eject the first empty up into the air it should fly about 30 or 40 feet. You can then shoot the empty and repeat until you hear the click. As to the slam fire function, newer models won't do it but I'm not sure what years will or won't. I do think you'll find that it comes to your shoulder better than any other pump you ever had. It's the real thing.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I have a 20 gauge version of the M37 Featherlight. Great little shotgun. Very soft-shooting with a butter-smooth action. It was made in 1951. If memory serves, I picked it up for $150 in an estate sale.

Well-Known Member

This is my Model 37 Deerslayer. Some of the old RT members may recall that I bought it last November to celebrate Swinery Clinton's failure in the election. I did some digging and found it was built in 1974. It's a smooth bore and has hardly been fired. The blueing is barely nicked up on the slide and the wood is almost perfect. Recoil with Remington managed recoil slugs is tolerable but 3 shots is enough for me. It shoots those slugs a foot high and on center at 50 yards. I didn't mess with it. I figure 30 feet is the max inside my place and at that short range it won't matter so long as it's centered side to side...

Well-Known Member

View attachment 789
This is my Model 37 Deerslayer. Some of the old RT members may recall that I bought it last November to celebrate Swinery Clinton's failure in the election. I did some digging and found it was built in 1974. It's a smooth bore and has hardly been fired. The blueing is barely nicked up on the slide and the wood is almost perfect. Recoil with Remington managed recoil slugs is tolerable but 3 shots is enough for me. It shoots those slugs a foot high and on center at 50 yards. I didn't mess with it. I figure 30 feet is the max inside my place and at that short range it won't matter so long as it's centered side to side...

Click to expand...

Haha I guess I should clarify, I bought it for a home defense gun, not for hunting.

Formerly known as Supervisor42

Didn't happen,
He wanted $450..
I been dealing with this guy for 15 years, and he admitted that he made a mistke and had way too much money in it and couldn't do any better.

So I told him I couldn't do that.

I walked.

Tomorrow is another day.

Jim

Click to expand...

My Ithaca 37 has been to the shoot at your place 3-4 times now?
Nobody ever asks to shoot it. Yes, it does the slam-fire thing.
Had it since I was 12.
It doesn't have the long mag on it though.
(it's the 'other' one)
I have both the slug barrel and the regular modified barrel for it.

Well-Known Member

I had two M37's. A 12 ga Deerslayer and a 20 ga featherweight. Lost them in the house fire.

Both of mine were 1st generation. Without the trigger disconnect. Like spikedriver said, you could indeed fire the gun, invert it, shuck it and get the spent shell on the fly.

It has interrupted threads which is why the barrel swaps are so easy. My only gripe is the single action bar, the one on my 12" ga broke, and the 12 gauge was ammo sensitive. Ribbed shells would hang in the chamber. But it shucked smooth shells just fine. Probably the reason I fire Winchester's instead of Federals to this day.

Ithica went out of business, but has been ressurected. I don't know how I like their product. I looked at a remake of the Ithaca Trench gun and was not impressed. It just did not have the allure of the two that I owned.

It was probably worth the $400. If it was in good shape it was probably worth the $450. The only shotgun I owned that I liked better was the Remington model 11 that I lost in the same house fire.

Formerly known as Supervisor42

It has interrupted threads which is why the barrel swaps are so easy. My only gripe is the single action bar, the one on my 12" ga broke, and the 12 gauge was ammo sensitive. Ribbed shells would hang in the chamber. But it shucked smooth shells just fine. Probably the reason I fire Winchester's instead of Federals to this day.

Click to expand...

Mine has been 100% reliable. The only time it jammed is when one of our reload's crimp opened in the magazine, spilling shot and jamming the shells.
Can't really blame the gun.
An interesting note: the KSG also shown in the upper picture, uses the same double-finger shell lifter and bottom eject action as the 37.
They knew what they were doing.
It's basically a bullpup 37 with 2 mag tubes.
That made it a no-brainer upgrade for me.
I can't even remember the last time I fired the Ithaca.

Useful Searches

Support Talk Firearms

Thank you for visiting Talk Firearms. Ads help to support this site and we would appreciate if you would turn off AdBlocker for Talk Firearms. To do that, click on the AdBlock icon and disable it for Talk Firearms.

Hate ads? Become a supporting member instead. Supporting members have ability to turn off most advertisements among other benefits, such as Supporting Member moniker, access to private forums, unlimited attachment and private message space.